I have seen the video and I’m in shock. Something fell from between the weapon vehicle and the one it crashed into, something that looked like cloth over flesh but I couldn’t get a good look at it to make sure. I’m getting most of my coverage from Twitter as I missed the TV news shows. I’m going to have to quit now because typing is causing my back to spasm like I’m dying. I’m going to publish this and lie down

While the headline classifies this as 2 separate attacks later reports have it as moving the attack from the bridge to nearby establishments and renewing the violence.

And stuff like this is why I keep asking how long we are going to allow WMD to roam freely on the streets. Words fail me in communicating my anger and sorrow. I mean seriously, from long past posts and recent posts you know I love cars, but I hate the things people do with cars. This is just another example of the things people do with cars that I hate so much.

It is about the same temperature today as it was Monday, but with the sun out it’s much more pleasant than then or especially yesterday with the rain. I’m still working on mocking up the Mini Sprint-T by installing the headers from the engine kit to the engine and reinstalling the engine to the body with the temp glue that will peel off from the plastic when it comes time to build the permanent parts and install them. The “weed burner” exhaust from the engine kit looks like it was made to use on the T Bucket body, which it might have. They are both from the same model kit company and there was lots of customization potential in the kit I got the bucket from.

Up first is a hit-from-behind wreck outside Houston. CYCLIST FATALLY STRUCK BY CAR IN NORTHEAST HARRIS COUNTY I couldn’t see if the bike had lights or reflectors, and the article and video did not mention them either which usually means the bike was legally lighted. What is far more likely is that the driver was not paying attention, and/or driving too fast for conditions. My take after looking at the weapon vehicle is too fast for conditions.

And legal infrastructure news from IA. Proposed bicycle safety law much needed, North Iowa cyclists say I would be pushing my state rep for something like this except this is the election year for reps, and the lege meets on the other year. So here in TX you find out who’s going to represent you about 4 months before the legislative session, they meet with almost no public votes taken, and then you decide to keep them or not based on what they decide to tell you about what they did… Damned hard to get a bill like this through the session when you have no chance of voting the people who vote against your interests out.

I’m still prowling the web for raw stock to build the Mini Sprint-T after failing to find local sources for single-project size lots of sheet, rod/tube, and strip polystyrene. None of the local hobby stores carry anything in plastic raw stock, and the local plastics distributors won’t sell anything resembling hobby lots of supplies. Deja vu all over again, this was the same thing that happened a few years ago when I was buying raw stock for making custom bicycles that I couldn’t get by cannibalizing bikes left on the side of the street.

Also still in CA, red light running cyclists are a menace, drivers doing the same thing… [Update] State Senator Seeks To Reduce Fine For Red-Light Violation So the year after raising the red light fine on cyclists they reduce it for drivers who actually killed dozens of people in CA from failing to stop before making a right on red. RIiiiGHT

Are you worried that you are not as green as you could be on your bike? Is there such a thing as eco-friendly bike lube? As pointed out in the article, riding a bike is already seriously green even using the “worst” bike lubes, there is only a tiny bit to be gained by going to another kind of bike lube.

The deposit-the-check-and-pay-the-bills trip went uneventfully and quickly. I hit the bank and all the places I needed to pay off without exceeding my mid-day pass restrictions, which meant I only spent $1.75 getting around Garland today instead of the usual $5. That’s a pretty substantial savings. I’ll have to pony up $5 tomorrow, but I have it to pony up now.

Also sorta local to the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell, a disturbing infrastructure report. Why Are We Even Talking About a New East-West Highway Through Dallas? They are still using traffic models that are a decade out-of-date and now about 30% too high. Sure there has been some increase since the price of gas went below $1.80 locally, but still not as much as the model suggests.

In NYC it is still FU, because cars. SUV Driver Who Killed Woman On Fort Greene Sidewalk Gets To Keep His License Waitaminit, I thought this clown was driving on a suspended license at the time of the deadly wreck, how can he keep what he doesn’t have? Then again he already was driving on a suspended license, so it’s not like he would pay any attention if it was suspended again.

How do you fix traffic fines so that drivers have enough incentive to drive properly when your entire transportation system is built around private motor vehicles? ADVOCATES SAY TRAFFIC FINE REFORMS WOULD REDUCE ECONOMIC BARRIERS My personal take is make the fines sliding scale based on gross income, and make them hurt. Maybe not as bad as getting hit while walking or riding a bike hurts, but high enough that when the inevitable happens there is a fund to pay for the victims’ medical care.

Terrorist attacks continue against cyclists in Oz. Cyclists are looking for the culprit dropping tacks on their path Notice who isn’t looking for the person spreading bike booby traps? LEO who don’t ride bikes. I have a suggestion, ask office supply stores to record names and ID when someone buys more than one box of tacks, since the tacks have been put down in numbers too large to be a single box. But them I’m just a witch in TX that is way too logical…

And some infrastructure news from the PI. Cyclist’s death spurs bike lanes movement Philipines infrastructure overall is pretty basic, along with their driver licensing, so they need widespread segregation networks even more than UK and US cyclists.

Yep, I bought a ticket to that half-billion $ Powerball jackpot. I mean invest $2 for a potential payout of $500,000,000? With my luck I would be crazy not to. I mean how many people do you know who survived getting hit with a truck going 60 MPH? The odds are slightly better than winning the Powerball, but not by much.

Another cyclist is hit in the most deadliest state in the US to ride a bike (or walk). Cyclist injured in hit-and-run crash in Sarasota The narrative sounds like a left cross or right hook, or just posssibly a swoop and squat. If the latter, then this was an assault with a deadly weapon rather than a hit-and-run.

A little infrastructure news from WI. Unplowed Snow Reveals Overbuilt Streets The “sneckdown” will show where even rush hour traffic fails to tread leading to significant reductions in street space allocated to motor vehicles. Of course this method only works for places where it snows regularly, which leaves out the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell.

Infrastructure news from the coffee capital of the US (home for Starbucks and other coffee companies, but not Seattle’s Best, which is located in Texas). Dangerous, unnecessary Seattle bike lane project moving forward There are two things that make me think this might not be an unbiased article: the credit is given to a Jason Rantz from a radio station and this line from the article: “The only people who like this idea are the small group of loud bike activists and “urbanists-at-all-costs” who bully anyone who stands in their way.”

And some people will just kill with a car or truck instead of going to all the trouble to rig a bike path. Hailsham cyclist captures near-miss incidents on camera I couldn’t watch the videos because they failed to load when I clicked on them. The stills were less than spectacular.

I’m out of links and ready to get some more work done on the Mini Sprint-T. I have just about finished the dam that will support the body filler that will make the kit bucket like the Speedway bucket only 1/25 the the size. There will need to be a lot of work done to the cowl especially in the firewall area to get the vacuformed body as narrow as the Speedway body, but I think I have the skills to do it. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to do it, but I know I can do it. One way or another I will have the T-Bucket of my dreams even if it’s only 1/25 scale.

Clint and Clyde have been interfering with blogging this morning, mostly by attacking my feet, and my hands when I try to remove them from my feet. The rest of the time they spend chasing each other around the office and demanding head rubs. I would take a picture, but that would require at least one of them slow down long enough to point a camera at them, frame the shot, and push the button. I can manage the first two steps but by the time I get to the third the cat is out of the shot headed for parts unknown. So instead of pursuing a career as a cat photographer I shall fall back on something I sorta do well and write stuff.

On another front I managed to match 3 of 6 in yesterday’s Texas Lotto, scoring me a massive $3 payoff on odds of 148,824:1 against. It has been said that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. I think it is a tax on the desperate and the dreamers and especially the desperate dreamers. As you can see, I can do math. I’m just a member of the third group. BTW I’m keeping $2.70 of this because I’m still following my agreement to give 10% of my lottery winnings to my church.

Up first from a fee that was mainly overseas today is a cyclist hit by a loose trailer in the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike. UPDATE: Stuart man in critical condition after bike wreck The cyclist was riding in the sidewalk when he was hit by a trailer that also took out a fence and 3 boats. This is not something anyone can avoid except to not be there.

Another link to that awful story about the driver killing a cyclist and getting away with nothing more than a $260 ticket, or barely more than a cyclist gets for not putting a foot down at a stop sign. No criminal charges for driver in crash that killed Reed College grad on bicycle Running a stop sign on a bicycle gets a $220 ticket. Killing a cyclist should result in a much higher fine by at least an order of magnitude, not $40.

Drivers having a hard time dealing with a parking-protected bike lane in IN. “Protected bike lane” causes confusion What they need is to run some parking stoppers between the bike lane and the parking lane.

How do cyclists die in Jolly Olde? How are cyclists most likely to die? I find it interesting that cyclists killed 4 pedestrians in the UK were killed in collisions with cyclists, from the ranting and raving in the comments section of the Daily Mail you would think it was a daily happening.

Cyclists in Oz are threatened by a persistent road terrorist attack that LEO refuse to take seriously. Cyclists protest lack of CCTV amid Yarra Blvd tack attacks These terrorist attacks have been going on nearly daily since January 2014. That represents a serious investment in the means used. Good police work would say, look for someone buying large amounts of tacks on a regular basis.

Still in Oz, a cyclist is hit from behind on a straight road with excellent sight lines. Cyclist killed I see LEO are trying to blame the fact the cyclist was riding a ‘bent for the fact that the driver ran him over from behind. Face it, if a driver can’t see an adult human being in the road they have no business driving.

A sad story about a dead cyclist. Dead Hamilton cyclist hoped to mend marriage The cyclist was using cycling to get his head back together, and a motor vehicle destroyed that effort. The real kick in the head was that had they managed to get him out from under the truck sooner he might have recovered with no lasting effects beyond the orthopedic injuries. He died from the hypoxia caused by the chest compression.

Back into the fray I go after the physically draining experience of yesterday. This time is just grocery buying using my new phone to keep the list legible. Given that Mrs. the Poet’s arthritis has made her handwriting worse than mine, and that I was given the options of passing penmanship, passing typing, or failing 8th grade, you can see how having the list kept in a neat sans-serif font would be an improvement. Putting the list on the phone has one major disadvantage, our normal shopping strategy is a divide and conquer of Mrs. the Poet doing shopping for the “core” part of the store, and I get the stuff at the “edges”. But with the list on my phone, and Mrs. the Poet being such a Luddite that working an Android phone is emotionally beyond her (she’s smart enough to do it, she just doesn’t want to bother learning how), I have to be with her to read the list off the phone and also the particulars of the various coupons and specials we are getting. This means we take twice as long as before.

My take on what’s important today says the then-17YO driver who tested 0.101BAC% more than 2 hours after the wreck, and more than 8 hours after the party she threw ended, when she ran over a cyclist while driving backwards in her truck, is probably the Big Story. Documents: House party, drug use preceded DUI crash that killed cyclist and Anchorage teen who hit, killed cyclist in court Friday also Prosecutor: Teen used drugs, alcohol before hit-and-run collision that killed cyclist The party ended about 0300 more or less, the cyclist was hit at 1000 or so, the driver was arrested at 1030, the blood draw was taken 1250, and the sample showed 0.101BAC%. To get that reading more than 10 hours after the party supposedly ended means she had to have been completely blitzed at the party. And apparently the defense has never heard of second-hand smoke, or THC retention, because they are blaming the cyclist for getting hit by a drunk driving a truck backwards at a high rate of speed as reported by witnesses. The defense story of the cyclist riding on broken pavement up a false flat at 30-35 MPH would be comical if the cyclist was alive to laugh at it.

Just a few miles west of WoaB, another cyclist executed by another drunk driver. Bicyclist Killed in Hit-and-Run Crash in Haltom City The crime scene footage shows a mangled bike that is so badly damaged I can’t actually tell which way the cyclist was going when she was hit. When I can’t tell if a cyclist was hit from the side or from behind or even head on, that bike is wrecked. I’m kinda sorta not convinced the cyclist was hit from the side, but I can’t even state she was hit either from the back or head on with more than a 50% level of confidence.

NYC drivers be crazy. 82-Year-Old Woman Fatally Struck By Dump Truck Driver In Bushwick At this point facts point to insufficient time to cross the street allowed before the light changed, and the dump truck driver failing to make sure there was nothing in front of the truck before driving over the victim. That said I put at least 50% of the fault for this wreck on the infrastructure, and the fact that they allowed the truck in the city in the first place.

Another wreck in CA, this was a bad week for them. Cyclist killed in El Cajon collision Yet another SWSS, you would think that by now LEO would be wise to this after the two wrecks with onboard video showed the cyclists riding in a straight line while the weapon vehicle failed to move over to pass. There was a comment that the driver failed to react until after the cyclist was hit and flying through the air that somewhat backs this up.

Another MI cyclist died. Bicyclist struck, killed in Grand Rapids The cyclist was killed while riding in the crosswalk in front of a stopped vehicle that didn’t stay stopped while he was in front of the vehicle.

Well the swelling went down in my good foot, the one on the end of the leg that didn’t get mangled. The bad news is the one on the other leg the swelling did not go down. It’s uncomfortable to walk with it and I still can’t get a shoe on it. 😛 And now I have these tiny divots under the scars where my shoe got ripped off my foot in the wreck. They look very strange…

And 3 days ride from WoaB LEO blame a cyclist for crossing an exit ramp on a highway built more like a freeway and the only way through for the cyclist. BCSO: Fatally struck cyclist may have been at fault I can’t get an accurate location, just “Hwy. 90 west of San Antonio” so I can’t say if there was a route that kept the cyclist off the highway. But to blame a cyclist for not seeing a turn signal on a vehicle behind him by more than a quarter of a mile is absurd. At that speed (60 MPH) a vehicle would travel almost a half mile in the time it takes to cross an offramp.

One got away in the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike. Bicycle may have saved boy in van crash Apparently the bike made the kid a little more mobile than he would have been afoot and prevented the stolen van from running him over.

And in another neighborhood, a child cyclist’s death is met with “You want infrastructure, you have to pay for it.” Rubonia faces cost of sidewalks after child’s death Now where are they going to get that kind of money, and why aren’t tax dollars being spent on the commons? (Aside from the fact that this is a non-white neighborhood?)

An act of terrorism against cyclists in Oz. Wire strung across road could have seriously injured This could have been fatal if the rider had been a few inches shorter or the wire a few inches higher. I hope they charge the miscreants with acts of terrorism meant to kill.